While you are considering it you should also tour large places as well as smaller places. the Medicare website has ratings of licensed facilities so you can check that out as well. Most of the large places are still broken into smaller "wings" or "units" so while the facility is large as an entirety the area that a resident would be placed would be smaller. The ones that I toured had separate dining rooms, living room areas and were decorated in different "themes". So do not exclude a place just because it it "large" exclude ones that do not meet standards.
I have been caretaker for my mom 4 years now since she got divorced at 86. She is now in late stage dementia and has a virtual appointment with PCP soon to see if she is able to get hospice. Anyway I had put her in a memory care home that was very lovely with only 9 residents and thought it would be a good place for her (at $4000.00 a month - she had enough savings for 6 months and then would qualify for medicaid). This place advertised all the stuff- cable tv, daily activities, good nutrition and hygiene, etc.......well it did not work out well as she was only there two months cause none of the above were true and I knew because I was there a lot because I love my mom (even though her care has completely exhausted me). I would find her lying in pee or they had placed a pad on top of the wet spot. Daily activities consisted of plopping all residents in front of tv (always on the news channel ) after meals which were things like corndogs or tough as leather pork chops that nobody could eat (without teeth /dentures ). This was in summer and I would take mom outside as there was a lovely yard but never saw anyone else taken out. In fact the owner yelled at me for inviting one lady out to sit with us (secure place- no one could get out without code so she was fine and actually happy to be out). That was when I took mom out and back to my brother's house were we are now. So definitely NOT satisfied with care and after a loss of $9500. and moving mom twice was overall a crappy experience. I would hope there are better places out there but think most problems in this place were owners not wanting to spend the profits to have enough help, good food, and no medical care for patients. So best of luck and I would only advise if you do find a place you like spend enough time there to see what really goes on.
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the Medicare website has ratings of licensed facilities so you can check that out as well.
Most of the large places are still broken into smaller "wings" or "units" so while the facility is large as an entirety the area that a resident would be placed would be smaller. The ones that I toured had separate dining rooms, living room areas and were decorated in different "themes". So do not exclude a place just because it it "large" exclude ones that do not meet standards.
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